Sunday, 6 March 2016

The Whale's Song

Industrial whaling began in the 17th century, by the 20th factory ships & 'whale harvesting' developed. By the 1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually. In 1986 the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling.

Now, whales are mysteriously dying - during January 2016, 29 sperm whales got stranded and died across Europe. It seems they became lost in shallow waters, but why? Were they affected by something humans did – busy shipping lanes, seismic testing, military noise or the ‘invisible’ threats of toxic chemicals in the seas...

The tails of two fin whales caught off the western coast of Iceland in 2009. (Photo: Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images)

It is amazing that in the year 2016, with the diminishment of
biodiversity and with species after species going extinct, that there
are still people so alienated from reality that they continue to engage
in contributing to the death of the ocean. We humans are literally
killing the ocean by diminishment of the life within. Many Faroese
overfish, they slaughter puffins and other seabirds and they murder
whales and dolphins.

Whale Song: A Culture All Of Its Own

'The first whale culture to be discovered was the ‘song’
of the humpback whale in the 1960s. At the time researchers did not know
that what they were observing was cultural transmission between the
whales, but they and the general public were so struck by the discovery
that the whales were ‘singing’ that humpback whale song was even
included in the Golden Record sent into outer space in the late 1970s on
the Voyager spacecraft.

Since its first discovery humpback song has been studied in many
parts of the world. Male humpbacks sing the longest, most complex songs
in the animal kingdom. Songs consist of a complex series of whistles,
squeals and deep calls. Their songs may last for as long as half an hour
and are divided into 'verses' which are sung in a specific order.' Source = WDC here.

From the Greenpeace Article January 2016
''Shocking and sad images have been all over the media in the past few days as some massive sperm whales have washed up dead on British beaches. Normally humans and these deep water leviathans live far apart, so it’s understandable that we are surprised and distraught to encounter them like this. But why does it happen? And what can you do?
Sperm whales are huge. They have the biggest animal brain on the
planet, and make some of the deepest dives in the ocean, where their
legendary battles with giant squid fuel our imagination. Immortalised by
Moby Dick and Pinocchio, their fictitiously fearsome reputation
sometimes overshadows the fact that these were the first whale to be
decimated by industrial whaling to be turned into oil. They tend to live
and travel in groups, and you don’t normally see them in shallow water
like the North Sea.

Every year hundreds of dead whales, dolphins and
porpoises wash up dead on British beaches. Amongst them there are usually a few
sperm whales. Recently it seems that a whole pod of sperm whales has
somehow got lost in the North Sea, stuck on beaches and tragically died.

That then begs a question as to how they got lost? Were they
chasing prey? Was it freak weather? Were they affected by something humans did –
busy shipping lanes, seismic testing, military noise or something else? There
are also the ‘invisible’ threats that whales in our seas carry, most notably a
heavy burden of toxic chemicals which could have played a part somehow.
Across the world, as whale populations recover from decades
of commercial whaling, they increasingly face a range of new human-generated
threats, which are much less visible, but just as deadly. That’s been shown in
the pilot whales killed by underwater noise, and the killer whale that got
caught up in fishing gear.

The WDC are running a campain to protect the Whales from Antarctic hunting

Don't let the EU sell out 4000 whales

The EU and Japan are looking to increase trade in goods
and services with each other – in other words make loads and loads of
money. They are close to signing a new trade agreement.

Great BUT…A. Japan hunts and slaughters hundreds of whales each year. It wants to kill 4,000 in the Antarctic over the next 12 years!B. The EU does not support whale hunting. Most of the people in the EU do not support whale hunting!
We can’t allow a trade agreement between the 'whale
friendly' EU and a country like Japan - a country that has just
announced that it will ignore an international court ban and kill 333
whales each year for the next 12 years in Antarctica.Let’s stop the slaughter for good. Ask the EU to use its power and say ‘no new trade agreement until the whaling stops’.

Oh the whale is free, of the boundless sea He lives for a thousand years; He sinks to rest on the billow’s breast, Nor the roughest tempest fears. The howling blast, as it rushes past, Is music to lull him to sleep: And he scatters the spray in his boisterous play, As he dashes – the King of the deep.